The Bible as Fanfic

[watervole]

 Great post on Making Light write the history of Christianity and different versions of the Bible as a series of fan wars.

It's an interesting tour of the Apocrypha, books that were in early versions of the Bible and not later ones and who actually put together the version we know now and what his criteria for selection were.

Comments

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

There's an excellent card game called Credo based on the squabbling over the Nicene Creed. It puts it all into perspective.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I own it. Great fun.

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

He missed out the Peshitta Aramaic Gospels which have been preserved since earliest times by the Syrian Orthodox church. No translations, no fiddling, no amendments.

The Peshitta is the official Bible of the Church of the East. The name Peshitta in Aramaic means "Straight", in other words, the original and pure New Testament. The Peshitta is the only authentic and pure text which contains the books in the New Testament that were written in Aramaic, the Language of Mshikha (the Messiah) and His Disciples.

In reference to the originality of the Peshitta, the words of His Holiness Mar Eshai Shimun, Catholicos Patriarch of the Church of the East, are summarized as follows:

"With reference to....the originality of the Peshitta text, as the Patriarch and Head of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church of the East, we wish to state, that the Church of the East received the scriptures from the hands of the blessed Apostles themselves in the Aramaic original, the language spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and that the Peshitta is the text of the Church of the East which has come down from the Biblical times without any change or revision."

http://www.peshitta.org/

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's not that simple. They have been both translated and had changes in the canon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshitta

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Erm… the books of the New Testament weren't written in Aramaic – they were written in koine Greek. The Church of the East may claim otherwise, but if so then they're flying in the face of all the scholarship on the subject.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This is really great!
Of course I can´t help mentioning the Medieval Czech Drama called "Mastičkář" - something like a healer but a little peiorative - (12th century) that had been expelled from churches because of a too "colourful" lanuage and a laic approach.
I saw it and yes, it is true!:-)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

'laic'?
Do you mean 'secular'?

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, that is the word!!! Thank you!:-)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

It sounded a bit like 'laity', so I guessed at secular as it seemed to fit the context.

Any luck finding maypole dances in Northern Europe? (I'm not sure if there are any to find, but I've found them in several countries I hadn't anticipated, so I don't know for certain)

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

About maypole dances - I an quite disappointed, so far no luck.
Today on my way from lunch I was passing a cathedral (catholic) and there were some photos on display. I noticed that there was a big wooden cross carried by men and women and there were long ribbons fastened to it and other people were holding them. Immediately I thought of you:-)but , well, it looked strange, even funny!:-)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

See http://www.pinterest.com/pin/19773685837036877/

and http://www.pinterest.com/pin/19773685837030900/

and http://www.pinterest.com/pin/19773685837030978/

I'd be interested to know if there are any similarities.

[decemberleaf.livejournal.com]

"The Bible as Fanfic" -- I wonder how many divinity schools, if any, have such a course. Wouldn't it be great if some did!